Most people are familiar with the AVI videos and the term DivX is widely popularized, but when they come across a video file with a .MKV extension, there seem to be a lot of confusion. The purpose of this article is to clear these confusions and problems and give you clear instructions how to play MKV files.
The extension .MKV stands for MatrosKa Video. It has also an audio variant .MKA, which derives from MatrosKa Audio. Matroska files are container files, and for the end user they are very similar to .AVI files. Just like .AVI files, the .MKV files can contain different types of audio and video.
Most commonly .MKV files are used for distributing High Definition video encoded with x264, which is free AVC/h.264 implementation. Read on to learn how to use and play .MKV files!
In order to play any video you need to have a splitter for file format and decoder for audio and video. The splitter’s job is to dig out the video and audio from the file and feed the data to the dedicated decoders. This is the case with every video container format, even with AVI. Unlike Matroska, the AVI format is natively supported by Windows operating systems and no additional splitters are needed.
You have two choices to get MKV files playing:
- The easy way: You can use VLC player which has built-in splitter and decoders
- The more advance way (recommended): You can install external splitter and decoders for audio and video
Note: A fairly powerful CPU is needed in order decode and play the x264 High Definition video smoothly.
Option 1: The VLC Player
VLC is probably the easiest solution of all since it’s able to play MKV files without any external codecs or splitters. Just download VLC, install and you’re ready to go.
If you like to use other media player than VLC, see more detailed instructions in the next page.
Option 2: Install Splitter and Decoders
First you need to install the Haali Media Splitter. Installation is as straight forward as installation of any Windows application. On the last installer page there are some options for you to select. As the name of the application suggests, Haali’s splitters isn’t just a Matroska splitter but it can also be used with many other formats. If you want just the Matroska functionality, keep the first two checkboxes ticked.
Enabling MP4 support is also a good idea, because you will most likely need it at some point. But as said already, the rest of the options won’t affect the Matroska playback. In the screenshot, you can see the settings I like to use.
If you have problems with playback, even if you had installed Haali’s splitter, you’re most likely missing the required video and audio decoders. The solution for the problem is ffdshow. The video in a MKV file can be virtually anything. But usually it’s either Xvid/DivX or H.264/AVC. Same applies for audio side: it can be anything, but experience has shown that AC3, DTS or AAC are good guesses. You should enable support for these formats during installation, though the settings can be changed later on as well.
As I already mentioned, you can use whatever media player you like, but if you are in a need for a good player, you should try Media Player Classic.